{"id":357097,"date":"2025-10-02T13:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/357097\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T13:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:25:12","slug":"kansas-city-royals-news-reflecting-on-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/357097\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas City Royals news: Reflecting on the season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite missing the postseason, 2025 was still a successful year for the Royals<\/a>, writes Vahe Gregorian at the Star ($):<\/p>\n

Yes, a barely winning record (82-80) might seem like a hollow token. Except for it\u2019s in the recent wake of averaging 99.6 losses over the previous five full seasons (not including the pandemic-shortened slate) before 2024. And that it\u2019s just the franchise\u2019s sixth winning season this century. And it represents only the second sequence since 1994 (2013-2015 was the other) in which the club has mustered multiple winning seasons in a row. Look, there\u2019s no champagne to pop open for this. And it wouldn\u2019t have any fizz, anyway. It\u2019s just that there\u2019s plenty more reason to think this year will become a link in a chain of stability and upward mobility than that it represents the abrupt end of a reset. At least as long as the Royals indeed shore up the maddening things they can control but too often failed to this season.<\/p>\n

Craig Brown at Into the Fountains reviews J.J. Picollo\u2019s end-of-season press conference<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Look, we\u2019ve been over this several times this season\u2026I just cannot get hung up on Alec Zumwalt as an issue. I couldn\u2019t tell you if he\u2019s a good hitting coach, a great hitting coach or the worst hitting coach in the history of hitting coaches. What I do believe is that Picollo and Quatraro don\u2019t have the kind of blind loyalty that was a hallmark of the Dayton Moore Era. The platitudes about passion and desire and all of that may sound familiar, but I truly believe that if Picollo and Quatraro didn\u2019t think Zumwalt could get the maximum out of these hitters, he would not be here. I realize I veer close to being a shill for management, but I think that they deserve a little leeway with how the organization has turned around in what was a very short period of time.<\/p>\n

Mike Sweeney tried to convert Pope Leo XIV<\/a>\u2026 into a Royals fan. ($)<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Guardians rallied past the Detroit Tigers<\/a> in the eighth to force a Game 3.<\/p>\n

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Chase DeLauter made his big league debut<\/a> for Cleveland in the win.<\/p>\n

The San Diego Padres did the same, shutting out the Chicago Cubs to stay alive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mason Miller threw the fastest pitch in postseason history<\/a> in the win.<\/p>\n

Following suit, the New York Yankees squeaked past the Boston Red Sox<\/a> thanks to a late run.<\/p>\n

The Cincinnati Reds were unable to complete the quadfecta as the Los Angeles Dodgers handily defeated them to advance to the NLDS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brian Snitker is stepping down as Atlanta\u2019s manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bill Schmidt is stepping down as Colorado\u2019s GM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

San Francisco is not considering Bruce Bochy<\/a> for their managerial vacancy.<\/p>\n

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Executives weigh in on how they\u2019d try to save those hapless Rockies<\/a>. ($)<\/p>\n

The recent spate of managerial firings shows how tough it is to find a good one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Napheesa Collier is emerging as the face of the WNBPA<\/a> in their imminent labor battle with the league.<\/p>\n

Unlike they had previously claimed, the Chicago Bears are still trying to get public funding for their new stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A general strike in Greece has brought the nation to a halt<\/a> as workers protest against a 13-hour work day.<\/p>\n

Jane Goodall passed away<\/a> at age 91.<\/p>\n

Your song of the day is Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl by Chappell Roan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite missing the postseason, 2025 was still a successful year for the Royals, writes Vahe Gregorian at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[51363,191,5,48,22912,8124,24,50,51,167,53,3292,936,2123,55,2596,2595,57,1101,4,40876,62,168,252,18,378,2122],"class_list":{"0":"post-357097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-royals","8":"tag-alec-zumwalt","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-chase-delauter","13":"tag-chicago-bears","14":"tag-chicago-cubs","15":"tag-cincinnati-reds","16":"tag-cleveland-guardians","17":"tag-colorado","18":"tag-detroit-tigers","19":"tag-hitting-coach","20":"tag-kansas","21":"tag-kansas-city","22":"tag-kansas-city-royals","23":"tag-kansascity","24":"tag-kansascityroyals","25":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","26":"tag-mason-miller","27":"tag-mlb","28":"tag-napheesa-collier","29":"tag-new-york-yankees","30":"tag-rockies","31":"tag-royals","32":"tag-san-diego-padres","33":"tag-san-francisco","34":"tag-the-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115304800160622622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}